Old pros

Being the owner can be awesome.

My wake up call this show morning?  7:30am.  And I had time to stop by the barn to pick up my braiding bands, grab myself an iced coffee from Dunks, and drive up to the show.  Trainer A and her teen du jour took care of loading and leaving this morning since I did the prep and packing on Saturday.  The ride times were kind of cruel.  Her teen started at 10am, finished at about 1:30pm (her very first three phase), and Trainer A rode at 4pm.  Ew.

I played groom all day.  I kept Theo cool, bug free, and happy as he waited all day for his turn.  I cheered for our teen as she went forth and conquered her first cross country course.  She was technically eliminated when her pony refused one jump three times, but she got him over it on try four and completed the course.  Since it was a schooling show, she also finished stadium.  It was quite the learning experience for her, needing to put all three challenges together in the span of a couple of hours, but she's already excitedly talking about her next show.  Next time, a number and not a letter!

 Theo in his most conservative turn out: white saddle pad and silver clinchers browband

Most of my day was spent either hand grazing Theo or keeping an eye on the ponies while they were tied to the trailer, snacking on hay.  The boys were very good in tight quarters.  We had one incident when the canopy the teen's family were using for shade pulled up from it's stakes and took flight right at the pony Juicebox.  Juicebox was, understandably, completely freaked.  Theo was also not pleased.  Trainer A was close enough to yank Juice's tie loose before he could hit it.  I was too far away and Theo snapped his breakaway halter when he flew back.

Winning the tail game

So it did it's job, Theo was uninjured, but he was also loose and rather freaked.  Well, shit.  Fortunately they had the canopy under control and being collapsed very quickly so he didn't bolt.  He trotted a few steps, then stopped to check out the grass.  I pulled off my belt and made a show of crinkling a wrapper as I walked over.  That little butt head snorted, shook his head at me, and trotted off a couple steps.  Another rider heard me calling out 'loose horse' and headed him off before he could make a break for freedom.  I threw my belt around his neck and another helpful stranger handed me a halter.

I love eventers.  Everyone dropped everything to come help me catch my horse with smiles.  Of course there was a loose horse, it's a horse show.  It happens.  No harm done and Theo  went right back to his haynet like nothing happened.

Very chill, almost like he knows what he's doing

I'll admit, there was a shift in the tone and culture when the eventers finished up their day and the dressage crew started to show up.  A lot more white breeches, a lot more white polos, a lot more snark.  It's a very small schooling show so a certain amount of 'big fish in a little pond' going on.  Let's just say, these weren't faces I see at the big, sanctioned shows in the area.  While the eventers definitely have a vibe of being in this together, the dressage crew was there for just themselves.  It's unfortunate.

Tracking right up like a real dressage horse

Trainer A was a bit anxious.  It dawned on me that she hasn't shown this year and last year she only did Intro.  How did that happen?  But once she was on Theo, everything was fine.  We'd worried about whether or not he'd work for her once the pressure was on.  He's a very emotional ride and they're more prone to bickering.  We didn't need to worry.  86*, waiting all day, brutal sun with very little shade, and he still went into the ring and went to work for her.  The occasional comment, but nothing like what he's capable of.  They had to take breaks in the shade while his respiration came down, but she timed her warm up well.  They went into the ring like the pair of old pros they are.

Yes, he wanted to melt by the end of the canter work.  You can see him going 'please can I be done?!', but he didn't throw a fit.  He took her word for it that the flowers were not, in fact, going to eat him.  This is a huge step forward in their relationship.  They got a 62%.  I thought some of the marks were a hair harsh, I thought it was more of a 64%, but I'm trying not to get in the habit of quibbling over a percentage point or two.  We're close enough that I feel like the judge and I saw the same test.  She seemed quite happy with them and there were a lot of 7's.

The attempted breaks at the canter kind of killed them, but it's Theo in July.  We knew it was coming.

Trainer A said she had fun and that she could be talked into showing him at Second next time.  When the temperatures are lower so poor papi isn't begging for mercy by the end of his six minute test.  Yay!

It was a good day.  Trainer A had fun, Theo looked quite proud of himself on his walk back to the trailer, and I got to spend all day being the owner.  Which means I smile, say supportive things, and write the checks.

It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Six legged demons from hell

I swear New Hampshire is designed to keep you in the indoor.  Three to four months out of the winter it's too icy/cold/snowy to be outside.  The footing is dicey and the piles of snow alongside the road make it dangerous to hack out.  Cars are dumb and anything that limits their visibility as well as taking away my emergency escape route is a no go.  The outdoor becomes an ice skating rink due to snow/ice/refreeze and is closed until spring thaw.

Then we get a glorious two month window where we can go outside!  So long as it's not raining and the melt is done and mud season is over.  We don't want to tear up the trails or splash through ankle deep mud designed to tear off shoes.  But we go out and adventure and shake off the winter doldrums for a glorious eight weeks of really unstable weather interspersed with rides outside.

And then the bugs arrive.  Oh, the bugs.  In waves.  Species after species making the outdoors absolutely miserable.  The first wave is the black flies.  They swarm and bite something fierce.  Theo reacts to them and looks like a pineapple if he doesn't have his fly sheet, fly mask, and fly spray.  Then we get a short break before the mosquitoes start to peak, quickly joined by the midges, deer flies, horse flies, swarms of gnats, and any other type of biting insect you can imagine. 

Our outdoor is surrounded by woods.  Very pretty, provides some protection from the sun so you're not baked, but absolutely unusable most of mid-June to mid-July except at the hottest hours of the afternoon.  You can't walk because the gnats will swarm you in a cloud if you're going that slow.  I have become proficient at coughing and sneezing up gnats in as effective a manner as possible.  Haven't figured out a solution for the ones that get in my ears other than to shriek and flail.  It's really beyond words awful.  Theo needs a fly mask with ears to run through his tests in the large arena after warming up in the indoor and our free walk is usually a series of head shakes and snorts. 

The road is marginally better and where I've been trying to get him out of the indoor so he doesn't get ring sour.  Sometimes I'm completely bat shit and take him out bareback in his rope halter for a road hack.  Because I'm dumb.  But it's good for his brain and he really is that steady.  It's still buggy but it's manageable.

 No saddle, no bridle, no problem

Once the clouds of gnats and little biting flies disperse in mid-July, we can start to use the trails again, but only at speed.  Horse flies and deer flies will turn Theo into a bloody mess in minutes if we're going too slow.  For anyone unfamiliar with this variety of torment, they're big flies that bite in a way that feels like you've been stabbed.  They leave a bleeding mark behind and, if your horse is sensitive, it can result in a good sized welt.  Horses really, really do not react well to this.  I've seen horses almost flip over when swarmed by deer flies.  They get completely frantic trying to make the biting stop.  Most of us do the rail bed at a canter for our trail rides during that season.  We can get away with trotting rough sections which makes trail riding a possibility, unlike in the gnat season where it's just impossible, but it's not exactly relaxing.

September we start to get relief and can start going out.  After the first freeze in October we are usually on the trails as much as humanly possible because it's our short window of no bugs, no ice, no mud.  The rest of the year it feels like an epic battle with Mother Nature to get out of the indoor.

My poor horse is reactive to bugs, so I'm constantly sinking money into his armor.  I just ordered the Amigo with No Fly Zone to replace his fly sheet that's on it's third season.  Got to say, the Weatherbeeta Airstream held up for three seasons of almost constant use and is getting replaced only because some of the velcro is starting to wear out and a tear near one chest buckle.  I seriously considered getting him another one but wanted to try the No Fly zone.  I'll keep it as a back up because fly sheets need washing but I can't leave him naked.  We left him naked for a couple hours one day this week and he came in covered in itchy, tiny welts.  They really got him behind his shoulders where he can't reach and that's unfortunately under the saddle pad.  Not a happy papi.  Lots of treatments and soothing baths for him.

One of the first things I bought him and it's still in service

Crusader fly mask every time he's outside at this time of year.  Either his heavy duty long nose version for pasture use or the lighter version that goes over his bridle.   If he manages to get his mask off, I usually spend a couple days cleaning out his ears and treating the damage.  There's a reason he's not clean clipped.

Flyspray of choice is the Ultrashield in the red bottle.  I buy it by the gallon.  If we're getting into the 40's or warmer, he gets sprayed.  It keeps the ticks off of him (also a huge problem here and lyme is endemic) as well as the worst of the biting bugs.  I got a free sample of Ecovet and I'm going to try that tomorrow.  I've been really hesitant due to the reviews of it being a respiratory irritant.  Again, Theo is a delicate fucking flower and I don't want to set off his reaction to inhaled irritants. 

Seriously, how is this horse still alive?  He reacts to EVERYTHING!  Allergies, bug sensitive, ulcers, unstructured carbs, it's a wonder he's made it to 13 years old.  Though it does explain why he seemed so angry for so long.  He was itchy, congested, and his stomach hurt.

But if anything can keep him from getting chewed up?  I've got to try it.  I've heard Ecovet is a miracle worker for the midges and those are hard to control with a fly sheet, especially now when he's out on grass 24/7.  The worst of the deer flies is coming and I'm pretty willing to try anything to keep them off of him.

New Hampshire.  Beautiful to look at, not so lovely to actually experience.

Intentional slacker

I'm settling in to my new status as a commuting adult amateur.  I ride 3 to 4 times a week and that's fine because my horse is getting loved on 6-7 days a week.  I school seriously 2 times a week and then hit the trails and goof off.  We went on a group trail ride on Sunday, discovering the way to a new trail network.  4.86 miles of trails?  Yes please!

Theo was a saint, leading through some very rough terrain.  Too rough for pictures.  The trail was closed for a couple years after a bad storm dropped some very large trees.  We were probably the first horses on it in two years.  Theo tip toed over dicey footing, showing the two barefoot stock horses how to make it up the hills and through the water.

I ride for the love of it.  Yes, I'm competitive, but I've learned the peril of burnout.  When I had to work late last night because a new customer launch went sideways, it was no additional stress when I realized Theo wasn't going to get worked.  Trainer A is on him 2 times a week now as she gets ready to show him.  Theo isn't going to freak out at a random day off.  He's not going to lose condition.  I'm not a bad owner.  Tonight I will stay late, baby sit this new data run, and not worry a bit about my horse because he's already been worked today and is scheduled for an extra ride in the morning.  I could ride him tonight if I wanted to, he's plenty fit enough to be ridden twice with eight hours in between, but I need to work.  It's how I afford him, his fine clothes, and his tasty grub.

Trainer A is hopping on him extra this week to get him ready for the schooling show on Sunday.  And I'm very excited about this.  I really want to see Trainer A show him and I think (hope) she's starting to get excited in her own right.  Last year she never showed higher than Intro.  Now she's back at First 3 and talking about when to move him to Second.  It has to be so nice to go out and show at a level that's actually challenging and fun.

So here I sit in the unusual position of only riding when I really want to.  I don't have to drag myself to the barn when I'm stressed or fried or exhausted just to keep my horse in work.  And I kind of like it.  With the long weekend coming up, he'll be seeing a lot of me.  And then I can go back to earning his keep and not feel like I'm sacrificing his care to afford him.

It's new.  And weird.  But I think it works now that I'm getting used to it.

The power of straight

There's this thing a lot of people talk about.  A bunch of dudes in Germany wrote it once upon a time, they thought it was important.  It's almost a religion for a lot of the dressage-y types.

Yeah, that thing.  It's a nice, simple thing, but it surely can't apply to all horses, right?  RIGHT?

We all know training isn't linear.  You improve something, then you go back and tweak something, then you hop ahead to add something new, then go back to clear up something that popped up, repeat.  I'll admit to taking this whole pyramid thing as a neat idea that has very limited application in real life.  You learn it but it doesn't apply in real life.  Especially with a stubborn, evasive draft cross that isn't at all a purpose bred dressage horse.  Theo hasn't read the manual. 

Guys, I was wrong.  Again.  Training may not be linear, but that pyramid exists for a reason.

In Trainer A's clinic with mi papi, she got the book thrown at her for not locking down straightness before asking for collection.  In our attempts to unlock his resistance to any kind of bend in his upper neck/poll, we'd been turning Theo into Gumby.  Which worked for some things.  He relaxed, settled into the bridle more, started to give us lateral work.  He stopped using his under neck and started to develop a topline.  But that was all relaxation and connection stuff, we never went back to straightness.  We threw some energy in and then said 'collect, Theo!'.  We skipped from impulsion to collection.  The classically trained fella was having none of it.

Who cares if he's in front of the vertical right now?  Get his shoulders in front of his haunches, get his neck straight, and ride him that way.  No, he does not need to practice bending through his neck, that's half of your problem!  Look at him break at the C3 instead of the poll!  Keep him straight and keep his poll up!  Slow, steady, relaxed, forward, and STRAIGHT.

By gods it works.

Yes, that's Theo with Trainer A in the saddle at her clinic.  Look at that stretch and bounce!  She brought it all home and promptly threw the book at me.  Ride him straight!  Shoulders in front of haunches, neck straight, poll at the highest point.  If he's breaking at the C3, that's not softening, that's evasion.  Fix it.  Slow the rhythm, relax, settle into the connection, add energy, get him truly straight.  Forget his muzzle, just keep him relaxed, straight, even in the connection, and forward forward forward.

It's been a game changer.  His rhythm in the trot has dropped by a full beat per minute and sometimes two.  We are now shifting in and out of lateral movements without him falling on his face.  He's not a huge fan right now because he's having to sit evenly on both hind legs and can't break in the middle of his neck to fake flexion, but he's getting the hang of it.  I have to think of moving his shoulders, not his haunches or barrel or neck. 

His haunches are on a straight line, pushing us up and forward.  The power runs forward through his body so long as there are no kinks in the hose.  His shoulders I manipulate from side to side without the haunches leaving that straight line and without letting his shoulders pop out and block the hose.  I do not ask for bend in his neck.  Do not let the hose kink in the neck.  Flex is not what I thought it was.  If I can see his eye, that's plenty.  I don't want a change in the middle of his neck.  If I have a bend in the middle of his neck, I've lost the shoulders.  Pressure in both reins, cycle back through to the haunches.  If the outside rein is light, the shoulders aren't where they belong.  Inside leg to the waiting outside rein, bring the shoulders in front of the haunches and straighten the neck.

It's been hard for me because I hate having his muzzle out that far and my brain keeps screaming that I need to bend in the circles.  To do this dressage thing correctly (and move up through the levels), he's going to have to give through his poll and that's been very difficult for him.  When I give him massages, his poll is usually very tight.  Always has been, even before I started riding him seriously.  He hated having his poll touched when I started.  I think he stores his rage there.  Once he lets me work my fingers in, there's usually very dramatic yawning and chewing and stretching, particularly on the right.  He really, really struggles to flex left through the poll.  It's painful, but the vet says it's just tight, not arthritic.  Chiro agrees.  Massage therapist thinks he has rage issues.

Taking away his evasion has finally broken through that resistance.  In my last lesson I asked him to give me a little flex to the left and he did it.  Neck didn't move, but I could see his left eye.  He was calm about it, just offered the adjustment.  With each ride, he's comfortable bringing his muzzle in a bit more.  Just a bit, a fraction of a degree, but it's adding up.  He's learning to travel with his poll as the highest point and to flex through those previously locked muscles.  And at his last massage, his poll was less tight and painful.  Bit by bit, he's becoming supple now that he doesn't have a choice.  And as he gets more supple, he's less resistant to the idea of traveling correctly.  I've heard dressage referred to as yoga for horses and it looks like it's working.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks while we back up and fix this basic that we somehow blew past.  Theo's had some temper tantrums because this is new and hard and his evasions are suddenly being stopped, but nothing severe.  He likes being powerful and once he's rolling, he usually has that cheerful expression from the clinic photo.  Trainer A laughs at him when he's warmed up and hit his stride.  He loves to show off and let everyone know how big and powerful he is.

So I once again have to admit that I was wrong.  The training pyramid is a thing for a good reason.  While training isn't linear and it's not a case of completing a level and moving on, it's a checklist that needs to be revisited frequently and in that specific order.  The same way a tiny shift in my position changed everything about my riding, this tiny shift in how I ride my horse is rippling through everything.  It's going to be months before we see the full results of the change, but after three weeks, I'm very excited for what the future holds.  He looks like a real, honest too goodness dressage horse!

Ode to the tail

He may not be forward.  He may not be supple.  He may not even be overly cooperative.  But he has one hell of a tail.

Seriously, that tail looks like it's photoshopped in our photos from our most recent show.  He's on his forehand and behind my leg, but I can't take my eyes off of that tail.

It takes a lot of work to keep this thing in shape.

Every day I have to pick through it and remove sticks, hay, dirt clods, big tangles, and grape stems.  Every.  Dang.  Day.

I try to not brush it out every day, but some days nothing else will do.  In fly season, he's prone to get snarls where his hair will wrap around his dock and he'll end up with a mat on the underside of his tail.  I don't want him to rub, so that's a daily check.

I also avoid silicone except during his brush outs during show season.  In the off season?  Silicone free detanglers only.  Sunscreen a couple times a week helps when paired with his fly sheet with a tail flap.

I don't braid it up, it's naturally wavy.  He doesn't tolerate having his tail braided full time.

Once a week (or as needed because he's a monster), he gets a full brush out.  I coat his tail in detangler from top to bottom and let it sit for a couple minutes to make sure it's soaked in.  Then I start at the ends and work my way up carefully with a big paddle tail brush.

In the warm months, he gets a tail wash every two weeks.  He's prone to pooping in that tail and rubbing mud in it, so it takes a lot of care.  It takes about a 1/4 bottle of Quick Black and 30 minutes to wash his tail completely.  Quick Black really helps with keeping that sun burnt orange color out of his tail.  I use it on his body, too.  It really brings out his dapples.

I have to sit and part his tail over and over to get down to his dock and get rid of all of the dead skin.  I'm so happy we have a wash rack now.  It used to be impossible without help and it's hard to find someone that will stand and hold your horse for 30 minutes while you wash his tail.

Theo loves it and dozes off while I scrub away.

Once it's clean, it gets slathered with EQyss conditioner.  That stuff is awesome.  Finally, finally, he gets stuck in a stall to dry.  Only once it's dry do I brush it out and trim the ends and a couple inches along his dock to keep him from getting big wings on his butt.

The end result?

Jet black, shiny, and the thing that gets the most comments.  Which is nice.  If they're looking at his tail, they're not noticing some of his other less flattering features.

Perils of perfectionism

I was going to write about spurs, but then I decided I've self-flagellated enough on that topic.  It's been almost two weeks.  I can stop the beatings now.  Instead I'll share the video of my bad outing and everyone can see that it is straight up self-flagellation from a perfectionist and we really didn't have that bad of a day.  It wasn't the score we wanted, but we didn't have people clutching their pearls or fleeing the area.  Pony was distracted, then pony was lazy.  Rider was distracted and overly stressed.

I got my spurs back after talking to Trainer A and deciding that it really is a mental thing for both me and mi papi.  He associates spurs with a serious business ride, even if I'm not using them.  For years, only Trainer A and I rode him in spurs.  Everyone else (when he needed to be ploppy pony) went without.  He's not a fool.  He gets a little bump and shifts gears to working pony.  We're going to work on weaning us off of them, but cold turkey is not the way to go.

Yes, we have a lot of work to do on getting him in front of my leg.  So, so much work.  My gods that horse is lazy.  Today we practiced walking forward like he has somewhere to be, halting like a gentleman, and then walking off promptly and starting from his hind legs.  Turn on the haunches, repeat in the other direction, a couple steps of rein back, repeat.  Walk is good for building up accuracy and strength.  But you know your horse is lazy when working walk with correct balance makes him protest.  But it's haaaaaaaard, mom.

I also got tortured on my sitting trot.  My left hip is killing me, so I must have been doing it right.  Trainer A was very pleased and we had a couple steps where Theo really had some loft while I was sitting.  Both of us must be getting stronger, he's getting very confident in lifting his back with me sitting.  Work over raised trotting poles is getting us both comfortable with the idea of bouncing along together.

And then he hung his head and acted like we were the cruelest people on earth.  Believe me, papi, I was working just as hard as you.

This is the downside to being a perfectionist.  I can tear myself up over flaws that are, objectively, very small.  I have to remember to stop the self beatings at some point and move on.  It's not an easy hobby, no point in taking all of the fun out of it.  So yes, lessons learned, progress to be made, but I think I'm done beating myself up.  There's always another show and we're still making good progress.  Time to go back to enjoying myself until the next time I make a series of dumb mistakes.

Setback

And things were going so well.

The theme of today's show was 'how many ways can Catie try to get eliminated?'.  Let's see:

1.  No throatlatch.  I forgot to grab my throatlatch since I was packing off of the list from the hunter show.  That's required equipment and I realized it was missing about 35 minutes before my test when I was about to get on.  No other bridle in the trailer since I was the only one at the show.  We ended up taking my spur straps, hooking them together, and clipping them to Theo's browband.  Tada, throatlatch!  Sort of.  I had enough of a throatlatch so we could show, but I was on pins and needles until after the tack check about it.

2.  Corner of death.  We were at the same facility as the hunter show on Saturday.  The one where it took me 20 minutes to get him to go all the way around the ring.  When we pulled in and I saw a competition ring set up with the judge's booth right on top of the corner of death, I just knew we would be assigned that ring.  And sure enough, we were.  The good news is that having Theo in dressage gear and doing a dressage warm up got him through the corner in about 15 seconds, but the judge was checking her watch as my horse bucked, spun, and generally threw a fit. 

3.  Step in/out of the ring.  While he was temper tantruming, he started to jump into the ring as an escape route.  I was able to stop that, but it was a close thing.  He bumped the rail.  Pretty sure jumping over the rail and into the ring before the bell rings is a problem.

4.  Spur rub.  Yes, he still has a rub, and dying the coat or hide is illegal.  So I left my spurs in the trailer (and the spur straps on his bridle) and rode like that.  No problem with the tack check since I didn't have spurs on, but that meant that my horse thought it was ploppy pony time.  Spurs = serious business ride.  No spurs = school pony ride.  That does not lead to good scores in my experience.

We did manage to get in the ring, complete the test, and not get eliminated.  But we got a 58%.  I wanted to cry.  I was so upset my chest hurt.  It's so frustrating to come so far, then have it all fall apart as soon as we go to a sanctioned show.

What happened?  My horse was freaked out by the ring (though light years better than on Saturday), so the first half of my test was me trying to baby him along and complete the movements in a recognizable way.  He was off the contact and unfocused.  For the second half?  He dropped behind my leg and I had no damn way to get him back.  He realized I didn't have spurs and I suddenly got the Theo from over a year ago.  I didn't think I was going to make it through my canter pattern without a break.  One good bump with my spur would have gotten him back on the contact, but that wasn't an option.  I guess I'm not the only one that thinks the spurs are mandatory equipment.

It wasn't the show anyone expected or wanted.  Trainer A is throwing Theo on the trailer for every outing with a dressage ring, even the three phases, just to get both of us over this hump.  We can do that test quite nicely, but we fell on our faces today.  Badly.  I growled and grumbled and sulked.  She's not concerned, she's seen us go enough times to know that we can do it and quite easily, but we're both easily distracted by being at a show.  A couple of little oopsie moments going into the test and we were thrown completely off the rails.

So I'm still upset.  Very upset, frustrated, disappointed.  Not with Theo, really.  Considering the theatrics he gave me on Saturday, his reluctance to go into K in his test was very mild and generally I was more concerned about it than him once the test started.  Mi papi has done enough dressage tests at this point that he understands how it works and things outside of the little white box are not a problem once we've gone down center line.  He didn't want to leg yield into that corner, but most of the test he went along with the plan.  No bolting, barging, bucking in the test even with the terrifying corner.

I'm frustrated with him that he relapsed to being completely behind my leg in the warm up once he realized I had no spurs (whip taps didn't really get us much, they've never been much of a motivator for him).  Trainer A says we need a more gradual weaning, not to rip my spurs off and then go show, expecting it to be just fine.  I agree.  It was a mistake to ride a test in a ring that gives us so much trouble without my very effective tool, but it was also the choice I had to make because I screwed up and gave him a rub.

Video of the test is uploading for everyone's entertainment.  No video of the broncing display, Trainer A cut the video at the first sign that it was going to get ugly.  And I paid for photos, so hopefully there will be some pics out of the ride that don't embarrass me too much.  His new navy browband is gorgeous and matches my navy coat perfectly, so at least our turn out was on point.

So we had a bad outing.  It happens to everyone.  Olympians get rung out for disobedience and the best horses in the world have days where they just aren't feeling it.  It's horse show life.  I get that.  That doesn't change how awful it feels.